Alien Isolation is a very easy game to write about. That is, in part, down to it being the only game I've played for the last two months or so, and also because it's the most memorable game I've played in recent times. And not for the right reasons.
From Wikipedia:
From the off, it is clear that the game will extremely hard, as you only have basic instruments such as a noisemaker, medikit, smoke bomb and other suck distraction items to hand, instead of more useful tools such as a revolver, flamethrower, or shotgun, weapons you get later in the gun and which are directly more effective. Indeed, the aim of the game for the most part, is to actively avoid being detected by everyone. The Alien itself (which actually has a friend at the very end of the game, proving a very real pain in the ass) cannot be killed, and should be engaged with directly. They can only be scared off by blasting the flamethrower at it (again, this is only available about halfway through the game) or distracted by using a noisemaker, or other such tool, and subsequently attempting to sneak beyond them.Part of the Alien series, the game is set in 2137, 15 years after the events of Alien and 42 years prior to Aliens. The game follows Amanda Ripley, who is investigating the disappearance of her mother. Amanda is transferred to the space station Sevastopol to find the flight recorder of the Nostromo only to discover an Alien has terrorized the station and killed the vast majority of the crew.
The Alien actually isn't even the biggest problem in the game, enemy wise. The Walking Joe, AI synthetics wander various areas of the game, and once they've seen you they won't stop chasing you. They are genuinely frustrating, and in one particular part of the game, they make it extremely difficult to navigate missions that are already made difficult by the presence of the Alien itself. The Walking Joe is somehow made even more of a threat when the game introduces the hazard suit variation, which, unlike its 'normal' brethren, cannot be stunned and thus cannot be easily killed. You have to shoot them in the head with a bottgun instead, a weapon you don't get access to until latter levels.
The final enemy variant is the facehugger, not quite the worst in that you at least get a few seconds to try and get away, but once you see them jump onto you, you're dead. Whereas, with the Alien, you can at least try to evade them and pull of distractions.
Now for the gameplay issues.
Save points are sometimes few and far between, cannot be instantly accessed (player has to wait a few seconds before the actual mechanism engages) and there are often 'hostiles nearby' messages attached to the on-screen prompt, scaring the player that little extra bit right before they're able to even attempt saving their progress, and not losing several minutes of action, which by the way, WILL happen a hell of a lot. There are whole sections of gameplay I lost because of Aliens, Walking Joes or facehuggers literally appearing out of nowhere. It's one of the game's biggest frustrations, and is unfair in every sense.
When you see an Alien from off in the distance, you realise they tend to have generic walking patterns. They'll walk in on direction, then the other, and then they'll scamper back into the vents. And that's fine. But near the endgame, they'll change their patterns. They'll seemingly become random. And that's the scariest bit. Not knowing where the Alien will look or go is genuinely shit-the-bed terrifying, especially if you haven't saved for even a few minutes. The motion tracker - which is supposed to be the most useful tool within the game because it gives you a rough idea of where the Alien is - isn't given to the player until they're about a third of the game in. And even then, its placement of the Alien can be erratic and completely off. The creature can go from being the furthest distance away, to within a metre or so, in the space of about ten seconds. If you're wandering aimlessly near a save point, or hiding space, this is again terrifying.
But these aren't necessarily the biggest issues. When I was finishing off my run through of the game yesterday, finally relieved to be removing it from my 'to play' list and ending a 20+ hour walkthrough, I noticed another frustration. Not even a bug or error, but an intentional addition to the Alien's arsenal of tactics.
The vents in the game are a safe haven for 95% of the game. If you manage to find one, you know you're a few seconds away from not being killed, because the Alien simply doesn't enter them. However, as I learned in a moment of terror and panic, is that in the final section of the game, the Alien will somehow track you down to within mere feet of your location, will locate the vent you're in, and will jump in their and destroy you. At the point, I was almost ready to stop playing the game, simply because of how unprepared I was, how I was led to believe that up till then, the vents were safety, and there was literally nothing tell me otherwise. It was unfair, cruel, it lost me in-game progress, and it just pissed me off.
But that about sums the game up. It is, at times, a very good looking game, and the sense of atmosphere is a constant. As someone who's not a huge fan of the films, I didn't necessarily come to the game looking for nostalgia or familiarity, but the game is well-made for the most part and as someone who looks for horror experiences, this is certainly effective. However, as a frustrating, potentially controller-breaking, irritating and punishing gaming experience, it is almost unapologetically successful.
